MacGIOLLA's GUERRILLAS .......Fifteen years ago , the leadership of the 'Official Republican Movement' (now 'The Workers' Party') stated that their armed wing , the 'Official IRA' , went out of existence .Today , the 'Official IRA' is alive and well and living mainly in Belfast and Newry . In the days when both organisations were operating in an overt way , the leadership of 'The Workers' Party' and the 'Official IRA' overlapped to a certain degree . Tomas MacGiolla , the man who led the 'Official IRA' for the last twenty-five years has always maintained the position that the 'Official IRA' went out of existence in 1972 . But the 'Official IRA' still march on , not an army fighting the British , but as a fund-collecting agency . DEREK DUNNE traces the roots of the 'Official IRA' and 'The Workers' Party' .From 'IN DUBLIN' magazine , October 1987 .

Sean Garland's involvement goes back more than thirty years ; towards the end of 1955 , when he was in the IRA , he was involved in an aborted attempt to free Cathal Goulding , a senior member of the organisation , from a British jail , using a hired DC3 airplane .

He also joined the British Army to gather intelligence for an IRA raid on Gough Barracks , and in 1956 , took part in the raid on Brookborough Barracks , during which two IRA men , Sean South and Fergal O' Hanlon , were killed , and Sean Garland was hit in the leg . When he returned south of the border he was arrested and given six months in jail for refusing to answer questions !

Garland was part of the 're-think' that went on within the Republican Movement from 1960 onwards ; so also was Cathal Goulding , and a Marxist computer scientist called Roy Johnston , Tomas MacGiolla and others . Goulding had been elected onto the IRA Army Council - the 'supreme body' of the IRA - in the 1940's and had spent eight years in British jails for his part in the raid on Felsted Barracks when the IRA tried to obtain weapons .

GARDA GUN FIRE : WHO TO BELIEVE.......?Close analysis of television news film of incidents last month at Emyvale suggests a garda's gun went off accidentally . But that is not what the Minister of Justice told the Dail .GENE KERRIGAN looks at the evidence. From 'MAGILL' magazine , June 1987 .

When the PIRA fired shots over the coffin of Jim Lynagh , a plainclothes garda , Detective Sergeant Joe Darwin from Monaghan , fired several bursts from an Uzi submachine gun , firing in the air in an attempt to stop a crowd from pushing a garda car into a stream . Photographs of the incident show that the garda also fired at body level .

That garda and two uniformed colleagues ended up in the stream ; they wanted to free another garda who was in the over-turned car - the crowd were throwing traffic cones and other missiles at the gardai ; during this incident the plainclothes garda , Detective Sergeant Joe Darwin from Monaghan , drew his revolver . The revolver subsequently appeared to be discharged accidentally .

Towards the end of the RTE News bulletin at 9pm that evening , film of the incident was shown - the gun plainly appeared to be discharged accidentally . Half an hour later the footage was shown on ITN News : both British channels showed the footage the following morning on their breakfast programmes , and it was shown again on RTE that night . Two days later , Fianna Fail's Gerry Collins delivered what many believe to be an inaccurate statement in Leinster House on the incident ....... (MORE LATER).

LIAM MELLOWS AND THE IRISH CIVIL WAR .......This is the bulk of a public lecture given at University College , Galway , by Sinn Fein Ard Comhairle member and Deputy General Secretary of the 'Local Government and Public Services Union' , Phil Flynn , on December 8th 1982 , the 60th Anniversary of the Free State's execution of Liam Mellows .First published in 'IRIS' magazine , March 1983 .

While others saw only the symbol of the oath of allegiance to a foreign king , Liam Mellows understood that the purpose of British policy was to create a political garrison in Ireland to replace the military garrison whose position had become untenable . Mellows saw that out of the revolutionary movement itself , a political party had been formed whose existence was bound up with retaining intact the British system of law , politics and social relations : that the old colonial relationship was preserved in a new form .

The significance and continuing relevance of Liam Mellows is well expressed in the following extract from an article on his life and aims published by Cumann na mBan in December 1933 , the 11th anniversary of his execution :

" Under the Fianna Fail government , industry is organised for the benefit of the British combines or for the British or Irish capitalists . The Fianna Fail government actually boasts of industries being set up under these conditions . Recently it is rumoured that three foreign firms are about to start the manufacture of cement in three different parts of Ireland . Imagine a government of men professing a love of , and an interest in , their country , permitting the private ownership - at this stage of the world - of such a vital necessity as cement ! It is no wonder England is not disturbed at the prospect of losing political control of part of this country while she is assured of the economic domination of the whole country . " (MORE LATER).